[Rockhounds] Abandoned mines: Who owns them?

[Lanny]

Check your deed and county records. Generally, if the surface and 
mineral rights are separated, the deed to the surface rights will state 
that the mineral rights are not included. The BLM may or may not have 
records showing this. If the rights were separated after the government 
gave up rights to the land, then this separation may not be shown in 
the BLM records, only that both are in private hands.

Is your land a patented mining claim? If so, it is possible that the 
mineral rights were separated, because somewhere along the chain of 
titles to the land changing hands, someone might have sold only the 
surface rights hoping that someday there might be enough value in any 
remaining minerals for them to be worth mining.

If you do own the mineral rights, then you can do what you want with 
the mine in accordance with the state and county surface disturbance 
and environmental laws.

Regards,

Lanny


On Oct 27, 2007, at 5:26 PM, Paintricks at aol.com wrote:

> I too am curious of this topic.  I just bought a house outside of  
> Cripple
> Creek, Colorado.  I have an abandoned gold mine just feet from the  
> back of the
> house.  It's a shaft that goes in about 23 feet with a boulder  wedged 
> in the
> entrance.  Since I own the land it sits on,  Can I  obtain mineral 
> rights to
> it or can I just open the claim back up?  Mineral  rights are hard to 
> come by
> here but I figure there is always a way to get access  to my own land. 
>  The
> land below my property is a different story from what  I hear.
>   Where would I go to re open the claim online?
>   Thanks,
>    Kevin
>
>
>
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